I felt like this solution to the problem I was having might help some other users. I also felt it might be lost in the forum shuffle later, so I created this topic to make it easier for others to find. This way even if it is 100 pages down the forum chain a simple search would show it to new users ...

Alright! I post this from my new SalixOS box. I felt like it was a driver problem, or permissions.

To fix the issue I was having:

Go here to get the driver for the card.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=5&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false ...

OK, before I go back into Salix from this livecd. Could it be a problem with group or user permissions? I will check to see if I belong to the net(work) group. I am confounded as to why this works in other distos and not Salix.

OK. I don't have a dhcp server running on this network.

I have a laptop running ubuntu 9.10 that is connected to an access point across the road. I then use NAT with IPtables to allow the laptop to act as a router.

The Wifi card in the laptop is my public facing interface, I use eth0 from the ...

This is how I set the network parameters under Slackware.

"ifconfig eth0 10.23.47.100 netmask 255.255.255.0"
"route add default gw 10.23.45.150"
"echo nameserver 192.168.1.1 > /etc/resolve.conf"

I did run netconfig to set the network, just to see if the above configuration was a little off or ...

I just finished an install of SalixOS 13.2. I usually install a minimal install of Slackware and go from there. Salix saves me some time and effort.

Anyway, under Salix I have no wired network connection. I can configure and activate the nic correctly, ping the local IP (i.e 192.168.1.100) and ...